Arctic Thunder first hit the console
scene on the Playstation 2 a few months back, it tried to blend high speed racing
with some weapon based action and power-ups. So I can safely say that the
Xbox version certain outdoes the Playstation 2 version in graphical terms
again, but what about the gameplay? Read on:

Are you ready for the ultimate battle on snow?
You'll get proximity missiles, atomic snowballs, and snow bombs to use against
your opponents as you battle your way to the finish line. If that doesn't do
the trick, you've always got your fists for those up close and personal encounters.

Choose one of 19 different characters and sleds
— each one giving you different capabilities — and prepare to wage battle on
one of the 12 outlandish tracks — from the Swiss Alps to Atlantis. Master your
snowmobile and perform any of the 62 different tricks, or lure your friends
into one of the special battle arenas for a duel.

Throttle the competition with hard-core
hand-to-hand combat and weapons like Proximity Missiles, Snow Bombs and the
Atomic Snowball.

Race with hyper-realistic velocity giving
new meaning to the words "breakneck speed."

Compete as one of 19 different characters
on 19 different sleds.

Get major air and perform over 60 cool
tricks! Each character has unique moves. Gain points and upgrade your
sled.

Master 12 Outlandish Winter Tracks that
will assault your senses …
from the Swiss Alps to The Lost City of Atlantis.

Fight head-to-head with two to four friends
in one of five open Battle Arenas.

Upgrade Shop — Acquire points and upgrade
your sled by increasing the snowmobile's power, and the number, strength and
accuracy of power-ups.

Installation is yet again just
a simple case of putting the Xbox DVD-Rom into the Xbox DVD drive, the game
loads in just a few seconds and you are basically ready to go straight away
with no fuss at all. If you do feel like fiddling about though, you can change
the controller configuration, vibration modes, and the sound options.

Level load times are pretty fast,
none of the levels seem to take any longer than 10 seconds to load, which is
pretty good going. The game begins with a short intro video which isn't of
the best quality.

Gameplay & Controls

If there is one thing for certain, Arctic Thunder doesn't try to be realistic,
instead what you get are players who can perform ridiculous stunts, compete
on weird courses, pick up power-ups and use weapons against your fellow racers.
As per usual with these types of games you start out with a small selection
of riders who you can take control of. You can race in various modes as shown
below:

Race mode: The main aim here is
to try to finish in first place, you get the chance to win gold, silver
and bronze medals depending on where you finish. For each gold medal you
win, you are given a special code which can be used to unlock special features.
If you manage to collect all gold medals then you will get to unlock a hidden
character.

Points mode: As it states, the
main aim here is to collect as many points as possible. You do this by collecting
power-ups, performing tricks and by knocking down opponents. You can use
your points in the upgrade shop to increase stats and to unlock riders and
new arenas.

Battle mode: This is a multiplayer
game with you taking on up to 3 other players in a 4 player game. The object
is simply to kill you opponents as many times as possible before the time
is up.

Training mode: Learn tricks, learn
the tracks and learn the controls.

Arcade mode: Just like the one
from the arcade.

Review Quotes

"there is a great feel of speed in the game, the frame rate never
drops and is always high, but there are a few of the tracks, characters
and textures that look as if they could have been done much better than
they have been"

As I mentioned above, there are a lot of items you can
unlock so the points mode is likely to be the one part of the game that you
will end up playing the most as it has something a single player can aim
for. The game offers a lot of variety in its racing modes, and there are
twelve different tracks, nineteen different riders and snowmobiles and then
five battle arenas, the good thing is that most of them are locked up away
from you at the beginning, this urges you on to try and unlock them by
getting better in the single player games.

The course that you take part on range from haunted forests
to underground lava pools, each area is filled to the brim, with power-ups,
jumps, short cuts and moving obstacles for you to try to avoid. The ground crumbles
beneath you, monsters come out of lava, and then you have to try to avoid all
of that while being punched in the face by some of your opponents. The amount
of obstacles you have to dodge and the rather crazy courses you take part in
will be one of the main pulls in terms of gameplay for a lot of people.

The kind of power-ups you can pick up range from the basic,
grappling hook which lets you pull back an opponents to mines and some massive
explosives. These are all spread out across the courses and you are sure to
pick up a hefty amount along the way. Be careful how you use them though as
a slight mistake can push you right back down the pegging line in the race for
first place. The controls are pretty easy to get to grips with, they are responsive
and quick and there is no button overload like there are in some games these
days.

So we've had to good, now what about the bad parts of the
game. Well for a start, the game can fly along so fast and have so much going
on at one time, that it can be hard to actually figure out what the heck is
going on and where you are on the track.

Review Quotes

"there
are the usual simple sound effects for the snowmobiles, a few player
voices, but nothing stood out as being above average unfortunately"

Multiplayer Modes

I mentioned that Battle mode is a multiplayer
game, well it isn't the only multiplayer game in Arctic Thunder, all of the players can
compete in any of the races if they want to. There isn't any doubt that the
multiplayer side of Arctic Thunder is a lot of fun and there are enough different course
to keep players amused. The battle mode (the one designed for multiplayer)
is probably the most fun you can have with Arctic Thunder so well done to Midway for the
multiplayer parts in the game.

Graphics & Sound

Arctic Thunder is a mixed bag - there is a great
feel of speed in the game, the frame rate never drops and is always high, but
there are a few of the tracks, characters and textures that look as if they
could have been done much better than they have been. The game is certainly
colorful, with good use of the primary colors all over the place. So while the
game won't be a benchmark title for the Xbox like Halo, its not all that bad.

Sound - hmmmmm well I can't say I wasn't
all that impressed, there are the usual simple sound effects for the
snowmobiles, a few player voices, but nothing stood out as being above
average unfortunately. Something that should have been improved on.

I have to say I quite enjoyed
Arctic Thunder, not as much as I hoped I would but I didn't end up hating
it. The game has its moments, and some of the environments are very well
done. But the main probably is that there is sometimes too much going on at
one time, thus it makes it a little confusing as to what is going on. But in
saying that, there are enough power-ups, secret levels and hidden characters
as you could wish for in a game like this, and I am sure people will find it
fun for quite a while.